Agenda item

To consider the report of the Service Director, Democratic Services & Communication with proposed revisions to the Council’s Petitions scheme, as in accordance with the requirements of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.

The Service Director, Democratic Services & Communication advised the Committee of the duty placed on a Principal Council to make and publish a Petitions Scheme setting out how the Council intends to handle and respond to Petitions (including Electronic Petitions), in accordance with the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.

Members were reminded of the current arrangements in place in respect of the receipt of petitions by the Council and the need to review the arrangements.

Members were provided with details of proposed amendments to the current scheme which included the proposal for e-petitions to be created through the Council website to assist the public in creating such petitions and the proposal for a tiered criteria of petitions which provided alternative mechanisms for a formal response.

Members discussed in detail the proposals before them and queried the response thresholds that had been proposed within the report, which some Members felt were quite high.   The Service Director advised of the rationale for the figures proposed, from looking at current petitions received to date and other Local Authorities petitions criteria, although advised Members as this was only a proposal Members could suggest alternative thresholds.  Members suggested that the proposed thresholds remained, although a review should be carried out once the petitions scheme had been in place for a reasonable period.

One Member queried why there wasn’t a suggested creation of a Petitions Committee and the Service Director explained that the proposal allowed for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to take forward this role, which reduced the need for the creation of a further Committee. The Service Director also advised that this approach was in-line with the approach suggested within the Welsh Government’s Statutory Guidance  The Service Director explained following a further query that the recommendations of the Overview and scrutiny Committee upon consideration of a petition would not be binding on the Executive, as is usual practice and it would be a matter for the Cabinet to decide if they accepted the recommendations of the Committee if this was the necessary outcome.

Clarity was sought in respect of the tier 3 threshold regarding the validation of signatures, the form of the petition - whether it was only electronic petitions or whether a hybrid approach could be taken forward and further clarity was sought on the proposal that similar petition topics could not be referred within a 6 month basis.

The Service Director explained that checks would be undertaken to ensure that for petitions relating to local ward matters, only constituents from that area or surrounding area should be signing such a petition.

Members debated the accessibility of petitions if an electronic only petition was accepted and following discussions proposed an amendment that tier 3 should be a hybrid approach of both electronic and paper-based petitions, subject to the petitions being created in a prescribed format at stipulated by the Council, through the creation of a guidance document and proposed petitions template.

Some members noted concern in respect of the additional workload this amended approach may create for the Council Business Unit.

Following detailed discussions, it was RESOLVED:

1.     To review the Council’s current Petitions scheme as in accordance with the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021;

2.     To agree to the proposed amendments to the current petition scheme as set out within section 5 the report, subject to the inclusion of ‘ hybrid petitions – Electronic / online and Paper based within tier 3 thresholds’.

3.     To endorse the revisions to the Petitions scheme to Council and for Council to instruct the Monitoring Officer to amend the constitution to reflect these changes.

4.     To approve the development of a petition scheme ‘guidance booklet’ to assist members of the public in taking forward a petition and for this booklet to be developed by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee.